Druid of the Land is SOO much better than the 5e version. In 5e nobody ever played it because it was so boring and terrible, and it might be my favourite of the UA subclasses. Other than that, being able to use a spellslot to regain WS is a nice convenience. Circle of the Sea looks interesting, I'm curious to try it out.
I'm still not a fan of the changes to WS, I don't think they have solved anything by just putting an arbitrary limitation on the number of forms you can take. You're still going to have the druid players digging through the monster manuals trying to find the best forms, only now that will happen each LR rather than between sessions and it massively stiffles player creativity without solving the underlying problem. Plus using your own hit points in the form is a massive and unnecessary buff to the non-moon druids.
The problem is that the complainers aren't specific enough, lots of them hate Wild Shape as a whole because of problems that were specific to Moon Druid. Moon Druid needed a fix to WS, all the rest just needed one singular change: "While in WS, you still benefit from your class, subclass, feats, skill and saving throw proficiencies but you do not benefit from your racial/species abilities."
Druid of the Land is SOO much better than the 5e version. In 5e nobody ever played it because it was so boring and terrible, and it might be my favourite of the UA subclasses. Other than that, being able to use a spellslot to regain WS is a nice convenience. Circle of the Sea looks interesting, I'm curious to try it out.
I'm still not a fan of the changes to WS, I don't think they have solved anything by just putting an arbitrary limitation on the number of forms you can take. You're still going to have the druid players digging through the monster manuals trying to find the best forms, only now that will happen each LR rather than between sessions and it massively stiffles player creativity without solving the underlying problem. Plus using your own hit points in the form is a massive and unnecessary buff to the non-moon druids.
The problem is that the complainers aren't specific enough, lots of them hate Wild Shape as a whole because of problems that were specific to Moon Druid. Moon Druid needed a fix to WS, all the rest just needed one singular change: "While in WS, you still benefit from your class, subclass, feats, skill and saving throw proficiencies but you do not benefit from your racial/species abilities."
But it’s fun being a spider and using a Dragonborn’s breath attack.
I LOVE the UA 6 Druid. The only change I would make is for it would be to use the druid's proficiency bonus for the attacks of the Wild Shaped beast. This is what I allow at my table and this allows CR 1 beasts to scale somewhat for use of higher-level druids.
Overall I think the UA6 Druid is pretty close, but there are still some teaks I'd like to see. Adding the Druid's PB to things like attacks is a good idea, the catch is if you just add it to what's in the stat block you'd be using both the Druid's AND the creature's PB, that might be too much. The UA6 text already says to use your PB instead of the creature's for some things, I'd just include attack rolls in that list. It would probably be good to include a small blurb about how the creature's PB is already included in the text for the creature's attacks, so you would add the difference between them, not your full PB. I'm not keen on the Druid only knowing a limited number of forms per day. Part of what makes Wild Shape so useful out of combat is being able to adapt on the fly. I also think that they aren't giving enough uses of Wild Shape per day, especially if they're going to be leaning into providing alternate uses for your Wild Shape(which begs the question why they didn't keep a more generalized name for the resource like Channel Nature). I liked that Level 13 ability they had in the first draft where you could switch back and forth during the Wild Shape duration, I wouldn't mind having that return.
I really dig the new Circle Of The Land. The level 14 ability will probably be useful, but when I try to visualize it my head it just looks.... weird. If I was going to add anything to the subclass, it might be a small bonus when picking the terrain spells for the terrain you're actually in. It could be a free daily casting of one of the 1st-3rd level spells(a bonus Cone Of Cold or Blight might be a bit much), or maybe you gain back a bit more when using Natural Recovery, something like that.
The new Moon Druid looks interesting. Being able to carry over your AC into Beast Mode means Moon Druids are going to feel a lot of pressure to take the Warden option for Primal Order.
Conceptually, I LOVE the new Circle Of The Sea. I'm not sure how well balanced it is, but the idea behind it is pretty cool and I'm glad it doesn't step on the Storm Sorcerer(which I WISH was part of the new PHB), or the Tempest Cleric.
The new Moon Druid looks interesting. Being able to carry over your AC into Beast Mode means Moon Druids are going to feel a lot of pressure to take the Warden option for Primal Order.
Pressure?! It is the illusion of choice and will literally lead to player regret if a new player did not choose it at the start and wants to be a Moon Druid. Fix: Natural armor while in wildshape, increasing by Druid level. This makes the selection of Warden or Magician an actual choice at L1
And spell casting while in wild shape? So you absorb your spell casting focus, you can form the words and make the gestures needed even if you don’t have the anatomy to do so (meh, magic) but you are limited to a group of spells?! It makes no sense for the subclass and it breaks all the rules for spell casting. It works if it is simply you use a spell slot to heal yourself, the rest of it is broken (use 2014 rules for healing in WS). If people accept the spellcasting change, the playtest rules for spellcasting in wildshape make absolutely no sense to be limited to a subclass of Druid.
Current playtest, Sea druid gains swim in wild shape if you are a species that has swim, but you gain it as a class feature at L6 if your base species does not - the simple fix for this is to grant a swim speed for sea Druid in wildshape from L3 and improve the ribbon at L6 by granting extra swim speed (+10 ft.)
But that said, I think they are getting close to a balanced Druid.
I really like a lot of the changes to core druid. It feels like we have more meaningful features beyond just spellcasting and wildshape which is nice. In particular, I love that Druidic gives us Speak with Animals as an always-prepared spell. Speaking with animals is one of the most iconic druidic powers in fantasy. It always bugged me that I needed to give up a spell slot to do what druids should just be able to do. I also really like that more scholarly druids can now get really good at Nature checks.
It's also nice that there's a sort of specialization going on between being more of a warrior-druid focusing on Wildshape/weapon combat and a caster-druid focusing on magic depending on your choice of Primal Order and Elemental Fury. It adds design space between the lightly armored, staff-carrying nature wizard and the armored up, shield-wielding guardian of nature smackin' dudes with a magic club.
My biggest concern is Moon Druid. It needs a little extra to fulfill the subclass fantasy of turning into a beast and mauling things. Using the druid's proficiency or spell attack for attacks would help a lot since they can't be super tanks like they used to.
I also don't like Wildshape's AC just being the druid's AC as this makes the Primal Order choice a trap that can cripple their entire build. It also gives the druid a reason to seek out Heavy Armor proficiency, which just feels wrong. I like that druids can use metal armor now, but they definitely should not be looking at plate armor as the optimal way to play the subclass.
Personally, I think Beast AC + WIS would be the best way to handle it. That way the beast's AC still matters when choosing your form.
Moon Druid should be able to survive in melee as their beasts even if they went Magician. Warden should be for if you want your caster druid to be a tank that can survive a melee brawl. Still very useful if you want to be a full melee Moon Druid but not mandatory. Maybe I want to be a Moon Druid who plays more as a backline caster who turns into a beast as a surprise for when enemies try to focus me. That should be viable too.
I aslo really love the concept of Druid of the Sea. I think they leaned way too hard in the direction of storms for flavor though. Hope they revise it with some aquatic animal and deep sea flavor worked in. I'd absolutely play it if I could turn into a shark swimming in that spooky sea mist aura to attack people or something.
I still think templates are the way to go for wild shape, especially Combat Wild Shape. But since they've abandoned big swings for the 2024 PHB, I'm holding out hope for another Tasha-style optional book that will go that route instead.
I also prefer the name of the UA4 that uses Wild shape, but it doesn't bother me since the important thing if I change: The traits of the BASE class DO NOT REVOLVE ONLY ON WILD SHAPE (Except 2 at level 1: Spellcasting and Druidic), which if it happens in 2014 and the UA4.
DRUIDIC, 100/100 that additionally gives you "Speak with Animals" as a prepared spell. (= in level 9: COMMUNE WITH NATURE)
I didn't really like PRIMAL ORDER (Like DIVINE ORDER in the cleric), not because of the general idea and the possibility of choosing, I loved that, but they are very powerful benefits for level, much more so if an option gives you weapons skills and armor, encourages multiclassing in a few levels and then continuing with the main class... Personally I see 2 options: I would move them to level 3 (And be a parallel choice to the subclass.), or without changing the level, or move it to the 2 at most would weaken this trait: +1 additional cantrip or proficiency in Whip, Scimitar, Blowgun, Hide and Scale Mail (In the cleric proficiency in martial weapons Bludgeoning, Ring Mail and Chain Mail.) and later, say level 5 of the druid, recovers total AU6 bonuses. {Personally I am not interested in medium armor on any druid, I liked the 2014 limitation in that aspect but I understand that others did not like it, but if it were up to me there could be a bonus on light armor (+1 additional, wearing that bonus also to wild shape, upgrade to +2 at a higher level.) and forget about the additional proficiency for medium armor.}
I was positively surprised by Elemental Fury and its improvement, more choice traits, where one has NO benefit for wild shape, this together with primal order, not only benefits choice, but unlike before, NOT EVERYTHING revolves around wild shape (which was mainly used by the circle of the moon, but... what about the other subclasses?), being able to even get into an intermediate point, choosing the circle of the moon but also the magical options, or another subclass and reinforcing melee, including wild shape.
Although the limitation on the number of forms hurt me a little (it is fun to complete the wildpedia in the adventure) it was logical and understandable, especially for the DM, and in the justification of not having limits it derives from having too many options and that great versatility in usefulness bothers many players and DMs. I would NOT have been upset if it were in templates like in the UA4, it could have been a better option but as they showed it it was VERY in its infancy, it had no use or versatility, and obviously they did not try it again but it was already well done, and they chose to blame us and return to the known to make less risky and minor changes.
Yes, the armor for the circle of the moon should not be separated from most animal armor, because it has better armor, there perhaps it should have been the armor of the form + half the wisdom bonus, + extra defense bonuses for use MAGIC equipment/special traits or spells. With optional possibility of a significant improvement to its AC (and/or damage, temporary health, etc.) at the cost of spending spell slots.
I really liked the circle of the earth, it was always my favorite subclass. Possibly I would have added an additional option: Underdark.
The circle of the sea, I was interested in the general idea, although there is a lot to polish/improve, I hope they don't cancel it for being cowards and take into account the comments to get one or more ideas on how to modify and polish it.
I still think templates are the way to go for wild shape, especially Combat Wild Shape. But since they've abandoned big swings for the 2024 PHB, I'm holding out hope for another Tasha-style optional book that will go that route instead.
There are definitely some upsides to using the templates like in UA4. Primarily, I think it made the bookkeeping & scaling much easier to manage for Wild Shape. But the whole thing with not letting Druids turn into a Tiny creature like a Cat, Rat, Spider etc. for scouting/sneaking purposes until Level 11 was a terrible idea. In my experience playing as/with Druids, that was a significant use of Wild Shape at low levels, especially for non-Moon Druids. Plus, with generic templates you lose some of the unique traits of specific beasts, like wolves knocking people prone, poison bites, etc. And the simple one that stood out for a lot of people was being able to change into a spider but not gaining the ability to climb walls.
The new Moon Druid looks interesting. Being able to carry over your AC into Beast Mode means Moon Druids are going to feel a lot of pressure to take the Warden option for Primal Order.
Pressure?! It is the illusion of choice and will literally lead to player regret if a new player did not choose it at the start and wants to be a Moon Druid. Fix: Natural armor while in wildshape, increasing by Druid level. This makes the selection of Warden or Magician an actual choice at L1
And spell casting while in wild shape? So you absorb your spell casting focus, you can form the words and make the gestures needed even if you don’t have the anatomy to do so (meh, magic) but you are limited to a group of spells?! It makes no sense for the subclass and it breaks all the rules for spell casting. It works if it is simply you use a spell slot to heal yourself, the rest of it is broken (use 2014 rules for healing in WS). If people accept the spellcasting change, the playtest rules for spellcasting in wildshape make absolutely no sense to be limited to a subclass of Druid.
Current playtest, Sea druid gains swim in wild shape if you are a species that has swim, but you gain it as a class feature at L6 if your base species does not - the simple fix for this is to grant a swim speed for sea Druid in wildshape from L3 and improve the ribbon at L6 by granting extra swim speed (+10 ft.)
But that said, I think they are getting close to a balanced Druid.
I think the simplest fix for Moon Druids if they want them to get an AC boost is to simply let them add their Wisdom modifier to their AC while in Wild Shape. When it comes to the spellcasting while in Wild Shape, I like the change and don't think it "breaks all the rules for spellcasting" at all. They just need to deal with the issue of what school healing spells will be in, since the new feature went along with moving them from Evocation to Abjuration in the 2024 lists.
Not sure what you're talking about with the Sea Druid and swim speeds. All UA6 Druids can wild shape into forms with swim speeds from the start at L2, and there is no base class feature at L6 and nothing in the base class that involves gaining a swim speed in other situations. Sea Druids gain a swim speed at Level 6 that applies when untransformed or when transformed into something that doesn't already have a swim speed. What you described is not what's in the text.
Adding wisdom modifier to AC would only get the wild shaped druid killed. Most animals have around a 13 AC. Add +2 to this at 3rd level (AC 15), while your fighters are wearing half plate for maybe AC 17 and perhaps you can see my point. I don't care for the armor translating to the animal, while being absorbed within the animal, but I think maybe this was the best option. The only changes really needed are WAY more beasts from level 2-6.
Adding wisdom modifier to AC would only get the wild shaped druid killed. Most animals have around a 13 AC. Add +2 to this at 3rd level (AC 15), while your fighters are wearing half plate for maybe AC 17 and perhaps you can see my point. I don't care for the armor translating to the animal, while being absorbed within the animal, but I think maybe this was the best option. The only changes really needed are WAY more beasts from CR 2-6.
Adding wisdom modifier to AC would only get the wild shaped druid killed. Most animals have around a 13 AC. Add +2 to this at 3rd level (AC 15), while your fighters are wearing half plate for maybe AC 17 and perhaps you can see my point. I don't care for the armor translating to the animal, while being absorbed within the animal, but I think maybe this was the best option. The only changes really needed are WAY more beasts from level 2-6.
With the way ASIs work with backgrounds now, every druid should have a +3 for WIS at the start. If you Wildshape into a bear (AC11) your AC would be only 14... Buuut your new form also has multi-attack (1D8+4 + 2D6+4) at level 3 and you get some temp HP to compensate for the lower AC. I think that is a fair trade-off for the quite high damage for the level.
Meanwhile, Dire Wolf (AC14) becomes 17AC which is more respectable. You lose some damage but gain the ability to knock enemies prone.
I'd be more worried about higher levels when your elephant form only has 17AC (12+5), but that still isn't terrible and you'd be hitting pretty hard if they made your to-hit scale better. You'll also have lots of spell slots you can burn for more temp HP by that point so it might be fine.
The new Moon Druid looks interesting. Being able to carry over your AC into Beast Mode means Moon Druids are going to feel a lot of pressure to take the Warden option for Primal Order.
Pressure?! It is the illusion of choice and will literally lead to player regret if a new player did not choose it at the start and wants to be a Moon Druid. Fix: Natural armor while in wildshape, increasing by Druid level. This makes the selection of Warden or Magician an actual choice at L1
And spell casting while in wild shape? So you absorb your spell casting focus, you can form the words and make the gestures needed even if you don’t have the anatomy to do so (meh, magic) but you are limited to a group of spells?! It makes no sense for the subclass and it breaks all the rules for spell casting. It works if it is simply you use a spell slot to heal yourself, the rest of it is broken (use 2014 rules for healing in WS). If people accept the spellcasting change, the playtest rules for spellcasting in wildshape make absolutely no sense to be limited to a subclass of Druid.
Current playtest, Sea druid gains swim in wild shape if you are a species that has swim, but you gain it as a class feature at L6 if your base species does not - the simple fix for this is to grant a swim speed for sea Druid in wildshape from L3 and improve the ribbon at L6 by granting extra swim speed (+10 ft.)
But that said, I think they are getting close to a balanced Druid.
I think the simplest fix for Moon Druids if they want them to get an AC boost is to simply let them add their Wisdom modifier to their AC while in Wild Shape. When it comes to the spellcasting while in Wild Shape, I like the change and don't think it "breaks all the rules for spellcasting" at all. They just need to deal with the issue of what school healing spells will be in, since the new feature went along with moving them from Evocation to Abjuration in the 2024 lists.
Not sure what you're talking about with the Sea Druid and swim speeds. All UA6 Druids can wild shape into forms with swim speeds from the start at L2, and there is no base class feature at L6 and nothing in the base class that involves gaining a swim speed in other situations. Sea Druids gain a swim speed at Level 6 that applies when untransformed or when transformed into something that doesn't already have a swim speed. What you described is not what's in the text.
UA6, at L2 your known Form can be a beast with a Swim speed.
rule while transformed: you retain Species Traits
so, you can transform into a Dolphin which has a swim speed
you can also transform into a Badger and if your character species has a swim speed (Sea Elf, Triton etc) the Badger can Swim.
this happens for every single Druid subclass from Level 2...
UA6 Circle of the Sea: at 6th Level you gain a swim speed equal to your speed. If you use Wild Shape and the Form lacks a Swim Speed, the form gains a swim Speed.
It is how I described the issue (albeit working of my phone at the time as not as clear as I could be)
The simple fix is that when you take the Circle of the Sea subclass you gain a swim speed for your species (& in wildshape regardless of form) and at L6 this increases by +10 ft.
The new Moon Druid looks interesting. Being able to carry over your AC into Beast Mode means Moon Druids are going to feel a lot of pressure to take the Warden option for Primal Order.
Pressure?! It is the illusion of choice and will literally lead to player regret if a new player did not choose it at the start and wants to be a Moon Druid. Fix: Natural armor while in wildshape, increasing by Druid level. This makes the selection of Warden or Magician an actual choice at L1
And spell casting while in wild shape? So you absorb your spell casting focus, you can form the words and make the gestures needed even if you don’t have the anatomy to do so (meh, magic) but you are limited to a group of spells?! It makes no sense for the subclass and it breaks all the rules for spell casting. It works if it is simply you use a spell slot to heal yourself, the rest of it is broken (use 2014 rules for healing in WS). If people accept the spellcasting change, the playtest rules for spellcasting in wildshape make absolutely no sense to be limited to a subclass of Druid.
Current playtest, Sea druid gains swim in wild shape if you are a species that has swim, but you gain it as a class feature at L6 if your base species does not - the simple fix for this is to grant a swim speed for sea Druid in wildshape from L3 and improve the ribbon at L6 by granting extra swim speed (+10 ft.)
But that said, I think they are getting close to a balanced Druid.
I think the simplest fix for Moon Druids if they want them to get an AC boost is to simply let them add their Wisdom modifier to their AC while in Wild Shape. When it comes to the spellcasting while in Wild Shape, I like the change and don't think it "breaks all the rules for spellcasting" at all. They just need to deal with the issue of what school healing spells will be in, since the new feature went along with moving them from Evocation to Abjuration in the 2024 lists.
Not sure what you're talking about with the Sea Druid and swim speeds. All UA6 Druids can wild shape into forms with swim speeds from the start at L2, and there is no base class feature at L6 and nothing in the base class that involves gaining a swim speed in other situations. Sea Druids gain a swim speed at Level 6 that applies when untransformed or when transformed into something that doesn't already have a swim speed. What you described is not what's in the text.
UA6, at L2 your known Form can be a beast with a Swim speed.
rule while transformed: you retain Species Traits
so, you can transform into a Dolphin which has a swim speed
you can also transform into a Badger and if your character species has a swim speed (Sea Elf, Triton etc) the Badger can Swim.
this happens for every single Druid subclass from Level 2...
UA6 Circle of the Sea: at 6th Level you gain a swim speed equal to your speed. If you use Wild Shape and the Form lacks a Swim Speed, the form gains a swim Speed.
It is how I described the issue (albeit working of my phone at the time as not as clear as I could be)
The simple fix is that when you take the Circle of the Sea subclass you gain a swim speed for your species (& in wildshape regardless of form) and at L6 this increases by +10 ft.
Ok, I see what you're getting at. But we're talking about a grand total of four races/species that come with a swimming speed(Sea Elf, Water Genasi, Triton, Giff), not sure that's worth changing the Druid for. Rangers get a climbing & swimming speed at Level 6 in Tasha's and the playtest, I'm not seeing anyone pushing to modify it for races/species that already had one of those traits. I may be wrong, but I think the only time a class feature says "You get X, or you get Y added to X if you already had X" is when that class/subclass feature grants someone Darkvision.
Adding wisdom modifier to AC would only get the wild shaped druid killed. Most animals have around a 13 AC. Add +2 to this at 3rd level (AC 15), while your fighters are wearing half plate for maybe AC 17 and perhaps you can see my point. I don't care for the armor translating to the animal, while being absorbed within the animal, but I think maybe this was the best option. The only changes really needed are WAY more beasts from CR 2-6.
For one, an AC of 15 at 3rd level isn't as bad as you might think. Most 3rd-level character in Light Armor are going to be there, since Studded Leather is pretty inexpensive(WAY more likely than being able to afford Half-Plate at Level 3, that's for sure). Plus, by your reckoning a Druid is far more likely to be at AC 16, since it's more common to see characters start with at least a 16 in their primary stat, especially full-caster classes. Plus let's remember that this ISN'T a Fighter we're talking about, it's a Druid. They shouldn't be as good as a Fighter at doing Fighter things, because they also get to do Druid things.
Plus let's remember that this ISN'T a Fighter we're talking about, it's a Druid. They shouldn't be as good as a Fighter at doing Fighter things, because they also get to do Druid things.
The problem is that if a druid uses Wildshape in combat they do not get to also do Druid things - spellcasting is forbidden in WS. So if Wildshape is intended to be an in-combat feature either the wildshape needs to be comparatively effective as a Fighter or it needs to not prevent the druid from doing their Druid things (i.e. allow them to cast all their spells while in WS). I personally don't care which direction they go on this, but they have to fully commit to one or the other, the current half-half in UA6 is just unsatisfying from both sides, I don't feel like a powerful primal animal physically ripping my enemies apart, nor do I feel like a magical druid taking on the spirit and essence of the creatures I protect.
UA6 Circle of the Sea: at 6th Level you gain a swim speed equal to your speed. If you use Wild Shape and the Form lacks a Swim Speed, the form gains a swim Speed.
It is how I described the issue (albeit working of my phone at the time as not as clear as I could be)
The simple fix is that when you take the Circle of the Sea subclass you gain a swim speed for your species (& in wildshape regardless of form) and at L6 this increases by +10 ft.
This feature would be SO much cooler if it instead gave aquatic animals a LAND or fly speed equal to the druid's land speed. It'd allow the Sea Druid to Wildshape into aquatic animals even on land to bring forth the terror of the seas in the guise of a floating shark or hovering octopus.
The problem is that if a druid uses Wildshape in combat they do not get to also do Druid things - spellcasting is forbidden in WS. So if Wildshape is intended to be an in-combat feature either the wildshape needs to be comparatively effective as a Fighter or it needs to not prevent the druid from doing their Druid things (i.e. allow them to cast all their spells while in WS). I personally don't care which direction they go on this, but they have to fully commit to one or the other, the current half-half in UA6 is just unsatisfying from both sides, I don't feel like a powerful primal animal physically ripping my enemies apart, nor do I feel like a magical druid taking on the spirit and essence of the creatures I protect.
This is the biggest issue with the Moon Druid design. By separating druids from their spells in Wildshape it creates a situation where the Wildshape needs to provide ALL the class power the druid needs to fight on its own or it won't be viable. This means while transformed the druid needs to have martial power roughly on par with an actual martial. Otherwise, they're trading away their spellcasting just to be worse than everyone else at the table.
Letting Moon Druids access at least some of their spells earlier is a good compromise, I think. Abjuration access is.. Okay. But also boring. Druids don't really have any spicy abjuration spells until 4th level spells come online.
Maybe if they included Transmutation spells so the druid could re-apply buffs and environmental effects without leaving Wildshape it'd strengthen the "Spirit and Essence of Nature" flavor of a shapeshifting druid while still giving good reason to use your caster form when necessary. Then the Moon Druid could turn into a wolf and cast Enlarge to become Huge for extra damage or cast Spike Growth to slow incoming enemies down.
UA6 Circle of the Sea: at 6th Level you gain a swim speed equal to your speed. If you use Wild Shape and the Form lacks a Swim Speed, the form gains a swim Speed.
It is how I described the issue (albeit working of my phone at the time as not as clear as I could be)
The simple fix is that when you take the Circle of the Sea subclass you gain a swim speed for your species (& in wildshape regardless of form) and at L6 this increases by +10 ft.
This feature would be SO much cooler if it instead gave aquatic animals a LAND or fly speed equal to the druid's land speed. It'd allow the Sea Druid to Wildshape into aquatic animals even on land to bring forth the terror of the seas in the guise of a floating shark or hovering octopus.
Sharknado?
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What changes do you like with the Druid? What would you like to see?
I overall like the changes to Druid.
I do think that while Wildshaped any beast feature that has a saving throw should use the Druids spell save DC.
Fying beasts should be at 5th level instead of 8th.
and some limited spell casting while Wildshaped at 2nd level. Spells like Speak with Animals, Animal Friendship, and maybe Cantrips.
Druid of the Land is SOO much better than the 5e version. In 5e nobody ever played it because it was so boring and terrible, and it might be my favourite of the UA subclasses. Other than that, being able to use a spellslot to regain WS is a nice convenience. Circle of the Sea looks interesting, I'm curious to try it out.
I'm still not a fan of the changes to WS, I don't think they have solved anything by just putting an arbitrary limitation on the number of forms you can take. You're still going to have the druid players digging through the monster manuals trying to find the best forms, only now that will happen each LR rather than between sessions and it massively stiffles player creativity without solving the underlying problem. Plus using your own hit points in the form is a massive and unnecessary buff to the non-moon druids.
The problem is that the complainers aren't specific enough, lots of them hate Wild Shape as a whole because of problems that were specific to Moon Druid. Moon Druid needed a fix to WS, all the rest just needed one singular change: "While in WS, you still benefit from your class, subclass, feats, skill and saving throw proficiencies but you do not benefit from your racial/species abilities."
But it’s fun being a spider and using a Dragonborn’s breath attack.
I LOVE the UA 6 Druid. The only change I would make is for it would be to use the druid's proficiency bonus for the attacks of the Wild Shaped beast. This is what I allow at my table and this allows CR 1 beasts to scale somewhat for use of higher-level druids.
Overall I think the UA6 Druid is pretty close, but there are still some teaks I'd like to see. Adding the Druid's PB to things like attacks is a good idea, the catch is if you just add it to what's in the stat block you'd be using both the Druid's AND the creature's PB, that might be too much. The UA6 text already says to use your PB instead of the creature's for some things, I'd just include attack rolls in that list. It would probably be good to include a small blurb about how the creature's PB is already included in the text for the creature's attacks, so you would add the difference between them, not your full PB. I'm not keen on the Druid only knowing a limited number of forms per day. Part of what makes Wild Shape so useful out of combat is being able to adapt on the fly. I also think that they aren't giving enough uses of Wild Shape per day, especially if they're going to be leaning into providing alternate uses for your Wild Shape(which begs the question why they didn't keep a more generalized name for the resource like Channel Nature). I liked that Level 13 ability they had in the first draft where you could switch back and forth during the Wild Shape duration, I wouldn't mind having that return.
I really dig the new Circle Of The Land. The level 14 ability will probably be useful, but when I try to visualize it my head it just looks.... weird. If I was going to add anything to the subclass, it might be a small bonus when picking the terrain spells for the terrain you're actually in. It could be a free daily casting of one of the 1st-3rd level spells(a bonus Cone Of Cold or Blight might be a bit much), or maybe you gain back a bit more when using Natural Recovery, something like that.
The new Moon Druid looks interesting. Being able to carry over your AC into Beast Mode means Moon Druids are going to feel a lot of pressure to take the Warden option for Primal Order.
Conceptually, I LOVE the new Circle Of The Sea. I'm not sure how well balanced it is, but the idea behind it is pretty cool and I'm glad it doesn't step on the Storm Sorcerer(which I WISH was part of the new PHB), or the Tempest Cleric.
Pressure?! It is the illusion of choice and will literally lead to player regret if a new player did not choose it at the start and wants to be a Moon Druid. Fix: Natural armor while in wildshape, increasing by Druid level. This makes the selection of Warden or Magician an actual choice at L1
And spell casting while in wild shape? So you absorb your spell casting focus, you can form the words and make the gestures needed even if you don’t have the anatomy to do so (meh, magic) but you are limited to a group of spells?! It makes no sense for the subclass and it breaks all the rules for spell casting. It works if it is simply you use a spell slot to heal yourself, the rest of it is broken (use 2014 rules for healing in WS). If people accept the spellcasting change, the playtest rules for spellcasting in wildshape make absolutely no sense to be limited to a subclass of Druid.
Current playtest, Sea druid gains swim in wild shape if you are a species that has swim, but you gain it as a class feature at L6 if your base species does not - the simple fix for this is to grant a swim speed for sea Druid in wildshape from L3 and improve the ribbon at L6 by granting extra swim speed (+10 ft.)
But that said, I think they are getting close to a balanced Druid.
I really like a lot of the changes to core druid. It feels like we have more meaningful features beyond just spellcasting and wildshape which is nice. In particular, I love that Druidic gives us Speak with Animals as an always-prepared spell. Speaking with animals is one of the most iconic druidic powers in fantasy. It always bugged me that I needed to give up a spell slot to do what druids should just be able to do. I also really like that more scholarly druids can now get really good at Nature checks.
It's also nice that there's a sort of specialization going on between being more of a warrior-druid focusing on Wildshape/weapon combat and a caster-druid focusing on magic depending on your choice of Primal Order and Elemental Fury. It adds design space between the lightly armored, staff-carrying nature wizard and the armored up, shield-wielding guardian of nature smackin' dudes with a magic club.
My biggest concern is Moon Druid. It needs a little extra to fulfill the subclass fantasy of turning into a beast and mauling things. Using the druid's proficiency or spell attack for attacks would help a lot since they can't be super tanks like they used to.
I also don't like Wildshape's AC just being the druid's AC as this makes the Primal Order choice a trap that can cripple their entire build. It also gives the druid a reason to seek out Heavy Armor proficiency, which just feels wrong. I like that druids can use metal armor now, but they definitely should not be looking at plate armor as the optimal way to play the subclass.
Personally, I think Beast AC + WIS would be the best way to handle it. That way the beast's AC still matters when choosing your form.
Moon Druid should be able to survive in melee as their beasts even if they went Magician. Warden should be for if you want your caster druid to be a tank that can survive a melee brawl. Still very useful if you want to be a full melee Moon Druid but not mandatory. Maybe I want to be a Moon Druid who plays more as a backline caster who turns into a beast as a surprise for when enemies try to focus me. That should be viable too.
I aslo really love the concept of Druid of the Sea. I think they leaned way too hard in the direction of storms for flavor though. Hope they revise it with some aquatic animal and deep sea flavor worked in. I'd absolutely play it if I could turn into a shark swimming in that spooky sea mist aura to attack people or something.
I still think templates are the way to go for wild shape, especially Combat Wild Shape. But since they've abandoned big swings for the 2024 PHB, I'm holding out hope for another Tasha-style optional book that will go that route instead.
I also prefer the name of the UA4 that uses Wild shape, but it doesn't bother me since the important thing if I change: The traits of the BASE class DO NOT REVOLVE ONLY ON WILD SHAPE (Except 2 at level 1: Spellcasting and Druidic), which if it happens in 2014 and the UA4.
DRUIDIC, 100/100 that additionally gives you "Speak with Animals" as a prepared spell. (= in level 9: COMMUNE WITH NATURE)
I didn't really like PRIMAL ORDER (Like DIVINE ORDER in the cleric), not because of the general idea and the possibility of choosing, I loved that, but they are very powerful benefits for level, much more so if an option gives you weapons skills and armor, encourages multiclassing in a few levels and then continuing with the main class... Personally I see 2 options: I would move them to level 3 (And be a parallel choice to the subclass.), or without changing the level, or move it to the 2 at most would weaken this trait: +1 additional cantrip or proficiency in Whip, Scimitar, Blowgun, Hide and Scale Mail (In the cleric proficiency in martial weapons Bludgeoning, Ring Mail and Chain Mail.) and later, say level 5 of the druid, recovers total AU6 bonuses. {Personally I am not interested in medium armor on any druid, I liked the 2014 limitation in that aspect but I understand that others did not like it, but if it were up to me there could be a bonus on light armor (+1 additional, wearing that bonus also to wild shape, upgrade to +2 at a higher level.) and forget about the additional proficiency for medium armor.}
I was positively surprised by Elemental Fury and its improvement, more choice traits, where one has NO benefit for wild shape, this together with primal order, not only benefits choice, but unlike before, NOT EVERYTHING revolves around wild shape (which was mainly used by the circle of the moon, but... what about the other subclasses?), being able to even get into an intermediate point, choosing the circle of the moon but also the magical options, or another subclass and reinforcing melee, including wild shape.
Although the limitation on the number of forms hurt me a little (it is fun to complete the wildpedia in the adventure) it was logical and understandable, especially for the DM, and in the justification of not having limits it derives from having too many options and that great versatility in usefulness bothers many players and DMs. I would NOT have been upset if it were in templates like in the UA4, it could have been a better option but as they showed it it was VERY in its infancy, it had no use or versatility, and obviously they did not try it again but it was already well done, and they chose to blame us and return to the known to make less risky and minor changes.
Yes, the armor for the circle of the moon should not be separated from most animal armor, because it has better armor, there perhaps it should have been the armor of the form + half the wisdom bonus, + extra defense bonuses for use MAGIC equipment/special traits or spells. With optional possibility of a significant improvement to its AC (and/or damage, temporary health, etc.) at the cost of spending spell slots.
I really liked the circle of the earth, it was always my favorite subclass. Possibly I would have added an additional option: Underdark.
The circle of the sea, I was interested in the general idea, although there is a lot to polish/improve, I hope they don't cancel it for being cowards and take into account the comments to get one or more ideas on how to modify and polish it.
There are definitely some upsides to using the templates like in UA4. Primarily, I think it made the bookkeeping & scaling much easier to manage for Wild Shape. But the whole thing with not letting Druids turn into a Tiny creature like a Cat, Rat, Spider etc. for scouting/sneaking purposes until Level 11 was a terrible idea. In my experience playing as/with Druids, that was a significant use of Wild Shape at low levels, especially for non-Moon Druids. Plus, with generic templates you lose some of the unique traits of specific beasts, like wolves knocking people prone, poison bites, etc. And the simple one that stood out for a lot of people was being able to change into a spider but not gaining the ability to climb walls.
I think the simplest fix for Moon Druids if they want them to get an AC boost is to simply let them add their Wisdom modifier to their AC while in Wild Shape. When it comes to the spellcasting while in Wild Shape, I like the change and don't think it "breaks all the rules for spellcasting" at all. They just need to deal with the issue of what school healing spells will be in, since the new feature went along with moving them from Evocation to Abjuration in the 2024 lists.
Not sure what you're talking about with the Sea Druid and swim speeds. All UA6 Druids can wild shape into forms with swim speeds from the start at L2, and there is no base class feature at L6 and nothing in the base class that involves gaining a swim speed in other situations. Sea Druids gain a swim speed at Level 6 that applies when untransformed or when transformed into something that doesn't already have a swim speed. What you described is not what's in the text.
Adding wisdom modifier to AC would only get the wild shaped druid killed. Most animals have around a 13 AC. Add +2 to this at 3rd level (AC 15), while your fighters are wearing half plate for maybe AC 17 and perhaps you can see my point. I don't care for the armor translating to the animal, while being absorbed within the animal, but I think maybe this was the best option. The only changes really needed are WAY more beasts from level 2-6.
Adding wisdom modifier to AC would only get the wild shaped druid killed. Most animals have around a 13 AC. Add +2 to this at 3rd level (AC 15), while your fighters are wearing half plate for maybe AC 17 and perhaps you can see my point. I don't care for the armor translating to the animal, while being absorbed within the animal, but I think maybe this was the best option. The only changes really needed are WAY more beasts from CR 2-6.
With the way ASIs work with backgrounds now, every druid should have a +3 for WIS at the start. If you Wildshape into a bear (AC11) your AC would be only 14... Buuut your new form also has multi-attack (1D8+4 + 2D6+4) at level 3 and you get some temp HP to compensate for the lower AC. I think that is a fair trade-off for the quite high damage for the level.
Meanwhile, Dire Wolf (AC14) becomes 17AC which is more respectable. You lose some damage but gain the ability to knock enemies prone.
I'd be more worried about higher levels when your elephant form only has 17AC (12+5), but that still isn't terrible and you'd be hitting pretty hard if they made your to-hit scale better. You'll also have lots of spell slots you can burn for more temp HP by that point so it might be fine.
UA6, at L2 your known Form can be a beast with a Swim speed.
this happens for every single Druid subclass from Level 2...
UA6 Circle of the Sea: at 6th Level you gain a swim speed equal to your speed. If you use Wild Shape and the Form lacks a Swim Speed, the form gains a swim Speed.
It is how I described the issue (albeit working of my phone at the time as not as clear as I could be)
The simple fix is that when you take the Circle of the Sea subclass you gain a swim speed for your species (& in wildshape regardless of form) and at L6 this increases by +10 ft.
Ok, I see what you're getting at. But we're talking about a grand total of four races/species that come with a swimming speed(Sea Elf, Water Genasi, Triton, Giff), not sure that's worth changing the Druid for. Rangers get a climbing & swimming speed at Level 6 in Tasha's and the playtest, I'm not seeing anyone pushing to modify it for races/species that already had one of those traits. I may be wrong, but I think the only time a class feature says "You get X, or you get Y added to X if you already had X" is when that class/subclass feature grants someone Darkvision.
For one, an AC of 15 at 3rd level isn't as bad as you might think. Most 3rd-level character in Light Armor are going to be there, since Studded Leather is pretty inexpensive(WAY more likely than being able to afford Half-Plate at Level 3, that's for sure). Plus, by your reckoning a Druid is far more likely to be at AC 16, since it's more common to see characters start with at least a 16 in their primary stat, especially full-caster classes. Plus let's remember that this ISN'T a Fighter we're talking about, it's a Druid. They shouldn't be as good as a Fighter at doing Fighter things, because they also get to do Druid things.
The problem is that if a druid uses Wildshape in combat they do not get to also do Druid things - spellcasting is forbidden in WS. So if Wildshape is intended to be an in-combat feature either the wildshape needs to be comparatively effective as a Fighter or it needs to not prevent the druid from doing their Druid things (i.e. allow them to cast all their spells while in WS). I personally don't care which direction they go on this, but they have to fully commit to one or the other, the current half-half in UA6 is just unsatisfying from both sides, I don't feel like a powerful primal animal physically ripping my enemies apart, nor do I feel like a magical druid taking on the spirit and essence of the creatures I protect.
This feature would be SO much cooler if it instead gave aquatic animals a LAND or fly speed equal to the druid's land speed. It'd allow the Sea Druid to Wildshape into aquatic animals even on land to bring forth the terror of the seas in the guise of a floating shark or hovering octopus.
This is the biggest issue with the Moon Druid design. By separating druids from their spells in Wildshape it creates a situation where the Wildshape needs to provide ALL the class power the druid needs to fight on its own or it won't be viable. This means while transformed the druid needs to have martial power roughly on par with an actual martial. Otherwise, they're trading away their spellcasting just to be worse than everyone else at the table.
Letting Moon Druids access at least some of their spells earlier is a good compromise, I think. Abjuration access is.. Okay. But also boring. Druids don't really have any spicy abjuration spells until 4th level spells come online.
Maybe if they included Transmutation spells so the druid could re-apply buffs and environmental effects without leaving Wildshape it'd strengthen the "Spirit and Essence of Nature" flavor of a shapeshifting druid while still giving good reason to use your caster form when necessary. Then the Moon Druid could turn into a wolf and cast Enlarge to become Huge for extra damage or cast Spike Growth to slow incoming enemies down.
Sharknado?